Last Song Syndrome
by carlotta1924
Summary: When Emma has a song stuck in her head. Or, how she "entertains" everyone with the song stuck in her head. Mini series of drabbles.
1. The Charmings

" _Got a lot o' love betweeeeeeeeeeen us_..." Emma warbled merrily in a falsetto complete with hand movements. The feather duster she was holding served as a microphone.

Snow, David and Henry groaned collectively. By this time they have lost count how many times Emma has sung Let's Hang On in a ridiculously effected falsetto. Emma started singing the song that morning at intervals and now, late in the afternoon, she is showing no signs of stopping or even changing her song of choice.

"Moooooom! Don't you have any other song in your playlist?" Henry complained.

Emma stopped dancing and grinned mischievously at her son. "Nope, kid. It's the only one!"

Henry could only shake his head. His mom was not even listening to anything right now. Clearly she must have heard the song somewhere and it got stuck in her head. The thing is, it's already driving everyone at home crazy.

"Sweetie, you have a beautiful singing voice. Maybe you could use that instead?" This came from a weary Snow. She had borne the brunt of her daughter's singing ever since she asked her to help with general cleaning in their house. It was already starting to get on her nerves. Snow liked the original version well enough, but Emma's singing sounded a lot like nails scratching on a blackboard. It was simply grating on the ears.

"I won't get the feel of the song if I sing it normally, Mom," Emma explained. "The chorus _has_ to be sung in a falsetto."

"True, but not _that_ kind of falsetto," David muttered low to Henry. He made screeching sounds. Both snickered.

Emma glared at everyone. "You guys just don't know good singing when you hear one. Now if you'll excuse me..." she turned and went to the kitchen to get a drink. Once in the kitchen, Emma let loose once more to the accompaniment of more groans coming from the living room.

 _"Let's hang on_

 _To what we've got..."_

* * *

 _to be continued. thanks for reading. :)_


	2. Regina

_"Don't let go girl, we've got a lot..."_

"Miss Swan! Are you going to give your full attention to those runes or are you planning to kill me with your horrible singing?" Regina said in a tight voice. She had been enduring Emma's screeching falsetto (if it could be described as such) for the last hour and a half. It's a miracle she hasn't done anything drastic. Yet.

Emma looked up from the book of runes she was perusing. "I don't know, but I can multitask," she replied cheekily.

"This is not funny, Miss Swan. I don't know why I even bother teaching you magic. You hardly ever listen. I tell you not to touch anything, you immediately pick up the first thing you see. And now you just have to inject your awful voice in here. When I. Need. You. To. Concentrate!" Regina started pacing.

Emma shrugged. "It's not my fault if the song's stuck in my head."

Regina did her best not to pull her hair out of annoyance. "Perfect. Just perfect. Never mind, I could just fireball you out of here and end my misery." She stopped pacing and looked at Emma intently. "Or..."

Emma didn't like the sudden change in Regina's tone. "Or what?"

Regina smiled wickedly. Now she had Emma's full attention. "Or, I could magic that song to get stuck in your head forever that you won't be able to sing any other song." Her smile grew wider as Emma's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"You wouldn't do that."

"Make me." Regina raised her hands threateningly. "Now what will it be, Miss Swan?"

"Okay, okay! I'll concentrate!" Emma turned back to her book. Regina thought all was finally well until Emma swivelled in her seat to look at her with pleading eyes.

"Well, can I at least just hum it?" Emma asked.

"NO!"

Emma had to duck out of the way of a raging fireball.

* * *

 _tbc. next chapter is in the works. :)_


	3. Killian

" _Baby, baby, think it over and stay_... hey!" Emma squealed when she felt someone pinch her cheek. She glared at Killian, who was sitting beside her on the couch. "What?"

Killian fixed Emma with an intense look. "You know how much I love you, right?"

Emma's eyes softened a bit. "Of course. And why might you say that?"

The pirate ignored her question. "You know that I will do anything for you, yeah?"

"Yeah..." Emma raised an eyebrow.

"And you know that I will die for you, aye, love?"

"Well I don't know about that yet, I want you around for a very long time... wait, what's with all the questions, Killian?" Emma asked, half-intrigued, half-annoyed. She swivelled from her position in the couch to give her full attention to Killian.

Killian took a deep breath. "You know, there's no easy way to say this, but I'll go right ahead. It's great that you love singing and all, lass, but I don't appreciate it if I am playing second fiddle to some drivel that's being sung the way you do it."

"Hey! It is not some kind of drivel!" Emma said hotly. "It just so happens that it's my current favourite song."

"Well, can you just... you know, sing it in a more normal way?" Killian asked.

Emma looked hurt. "What's wrong with the way I sing it? It's how the song is sung."

"I know that. And I don't mind you singing that song." Killian then took Emma's hands in his to soften what he is going to say next. "It's just the way you sing it, Emma. It's sort of like a... mood killer."

"Mood killer, huh?"

"Uh... yeah..." Killian couldn't continue whatever he was trying to say as Emma moved to straddle him and cup his face tenderly in her hands. She gave him a impish grin.

"Y'know, you could have just done this to shut me up without all the drama, right, love?" Emma looped her arms around Killian and kissed him with an intensity that left his senses going haywire. Killian smiled. Why hadn't he thought of this? Ah, well. He immediately returned her affections with equal fervour. Maybe a little too much.

Anything to get her mind off that song.

* * *

 _Btw. The song mentioned in this fic is Let's Hang On! by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I love them! ^_^ tbc. thanks for reading :)_


	4. Emma in Wonderland

_a/n: borrowing a little line from the show for this._

* * *

"Okay, tell me again how in the world have we gotten into this mess, Miss Swan?" Regina asked irritably. She and Emma were crouched behind a flap in one of the tents in a carnival. They were hiding from the Queen of Hearts and her soldiers after Emma inadvertently sung her current song on loop during a diplomatic meeting in Wonderland.

"Oh please, how was I to know the Queen of Hearts is sensitive to high-pitched sounds?!" Emma snapped back.

In the distance, they could hear the Queen shouting to her soldiers her infamous line, "Off with their heads!" 'Their', of course referring to Emma and Regina.

The two had come to Wonderland to initiate diplomatic relations, with Regina having been asked by Snow and David to act as ambassador. Emma had to tag along as her security escort. Neither woman was pleased with the arrangement, but it was either that or risk trouble. Storybrooke was cursed many times over already as it was.

Unfortunately for Emma, who eventually became bored with the daylong proceedings, began to daydream with the song playing in her mind as backdrop. At first she was able to pretend to be interested but then she got so caught up in her daydreams that when Regina and the Queen were about to wrap up, she suddenly burst into song.

"What is that dreadful noise?" the Queen had screeched. All eyes landed on Emma, who stopped at mid-falsetto. The Queen clapped her hands over her ears and yelled, "Off with their heads!"

The soldier-cards immediately surrounded Emma and Regina, with the latter less than pleased that she got roped into Emma's blunder. The two women silently agreed on one thing, though. Diplomatic relations or not, they blasted their way through the soldiers with their magic to escape. Regina then poofed them from the castle and into a carnival nearby, which is of course the first place the Queen and her minions would look into.

Emma and Regina had to stop sniping at each other when they heard the clomp of the soldiers' boots coming nearer. They had to be still behind the tent flap when the Knave of Hearts entered the tent followed by ten other soldier-cards. They could hear objects being turned upside down in the search for them. And their hearts nearly stopped when they heard the Queen of Hearts call out to her men just outside.

"Have you found them?" she growled.

"My apologies, Your Majesty, but it seems as if they have disappeared into thin air," the Knave of Hearts replied.

"Well, find them or else I'll have your head instead!" the Queen screamed into his face.

Emma and Regina didn't breathe or move an inch until they were sure that their would-be captors were totally gone. They finally crept out of the tent. Regina then whirled at Emma.

"You and your dratted song! Why must you sing it at a time like this?" she shouted.

"Like I said, I didn't know she's that sensitive!" Emma shouted back.

"I think I haven't made myself clear, Swan. You were not supposed to sing in the first place! That was an official meeting between two realms! Your mind was obviously somewhere else. What are you, twelve?" Regina pointed a finger at Emma. "You got us into trouble, you fix this! I for one will not go back to Storybrooke with trouble nipping at our heels. And you don't want your mommy and daddy to be disappointed with you, do you?"

Emma didn't answer. She was slowly coming to terms with the ramifications of her dumb action.

"Do you?!"

* * *

Emma's eyes shot open as she gasped for breath. The dream was all too vivid for her to realise that it was just indeed a dream. As the cobwebs cleared from her mind, she noticed a figure sitting beside her on her bed.

"Mom?" Emma croaked.

Snow looked at her daughter with concern. "You were muttering quite loudly in your sleep, honey." She gently brushed a tendril of hair from Emma's face. "Nightmare?"

Emma bit her lip. "Um... something like that."

She was not about to tell her mom that she had gotten into trouble singing Let's Hang On in a dream sequence, of all things.

* * *

 _ _a/n: this one is a bit longer than a drabble, but what demands to get written gets written. heehee._ tbc._


	5. Epilogue

Saturday night found the Charming family having dinner at Granny's Diner and everyone was having a good time simply catching up on each other's lives that week. The song obviously took center stage in Emma's week and counting, judging from how she still bursts into the same song when there is a lull in the conversation.

It has also been a week since Emma heard the song played on the radio and started singing it. All throughout she found herself singing the song from time to time in the same discordant falsetto at the most random (and worst of) times, really feeling it. However, it has already gotten old and as much as she'd hate to admit it, singing it was now getting on _her_ nerves.

" _Hang on, hang on, hang_ -oh, brain, please shut up already!" Emma cried out in frustration at the same time that Neal began to whimper.

"Now you know how we feel, dear," Snow said drily as she jiggled Neal in her arms to comfort him. "See? Even your baby brother can't take it anymore."

Emma rolled her eyes. "I can't help it if the song's too catchy, mom."

David took a bite of his lasagna. "True, Emma, but there must be other songs that you might like to sing instead," he said. "Maybe Regina can help you with a potion or something," he added as the door to Granny's opened and Regina walked in, looking as regal as ever.

"This is something that magic cannot undo, dad," Emma said. "I'll have to do another mix soon. Actually, make that now. Just so I'll have some variety in music starting today." She took out her phone to scroll down her playlist.

"Good grief, don't tell me that song's still on loop in Emma's brain?" Regina rolled her eyes rather melodramatically as she took a seat across from Emma.

"I don't have to explain myself to you, Madam Mayor," Emma said haughtily.

"See if I care, Swan." Regina shot back. "However, I do care about the music that my son gets to listen to whenever he's with you. I can't have him getting songs stuck in his head like you do."

"Oh, don't worry about me, mom. I've got my own playlist in my phone to listen to anyway whenever I'm with her." Henry piped up cheerfully before he realised what he said. "Uh-oh."

Emma bopped Henry playfully. "Hey kid! Whose side are you on, huh?"

"Nobody's!" Henry scratched his head before focusing on his burger.

The conversation between the Charmings and Regina continued on to other threads. When there was another lull, Emma suddenly let out a whoop.

"Whoa! I can't believe it!" Emma cheered.

Snow looked over at Emma's phone. "Believe what?"

Grinning hugely, Emma showed her family and Regina what's on her phone. "It's been forever since I last listened to this song!"

Everyone gulped. They are now bracing themselves for days of Emma singing AND prancing along like a horse to Gangnam Style.

 _fin_


End file.
